Have any of you testers found this error, besides me, in Win 7 as yet? I run 5 machines with Win 7, only one is giving this error at the moment. I have tried every supposed fix, five pages of various code, registry edits, etc. Wmi, Rpc, and WinManagement services. Even a system restore to an earlier date when System Info worked properly. <Error is as follows> (When opening System Information, whether admin or user) System Information Can't Collect Information cannot access the Windows Management Instrumentation software. Windows Management files may be moved or missing.Nothing has fixed this issue as yet. Anyone have anything new to add?Thanks,Dave

I would try a repair setup of Win 7. The 'in-place upgrade' should fix the WMI. If you would like to perform the In-place Upgrade, refer to the following steps. 1. Start the computer by using the current Operating System. 2. Insert the current WindowsDVD in the computer's DVD drive. 3. Use one of the following procedures, as appropriate: If Windows automatically detects the DVD, the Install now screen appears. Click Install now. If Windows does not automatically detect the DVD, follow these steps:a. Click Start, click Run, type Drive:\setup.exe, and then click OK. Note Drive is the drive letter of the computer's DVD drive. b. Click Install now. 4. When you reach the "Which type of installation do you want?" screen, click Upgrade to upgrade the current operating system to Windows.Rating posts helps other users Mark L. Ferguson MS-MVP

Thanks Mark,I know this is one of two ways to get System Information working again. The other is deleting the Win 7 partition and reinstall. I was much more curious as to what causes the problem, and fix in situ.Appreciate your time,Dave

Guess what ! The upgrade in place does not fix the issue as we thought. It drags along files, settings, and programs galore. Also unfortunately, dragging along the problem. I made several changes to the registry before the upgrade which also came along for the ride.

Open up Services by typing services.msc at the Start menu search dialog box. See if the Windows Management Instrumentation service is running. If not, then start it and try running msinfo32 again. What registry edits did you make?

Darien:Here is the list of what didn't cure the problem. Thanks for having a look,Dave ( Your suggestion, and a good one,was one of the first that I tried, hours ago.) Have tried everything from here down>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Windows management services running/off then on. rpc servives running/ off then on. wmi services running/ off then on. Msinfo32.exe Generates a "Can't Collect Information" Error Message: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=323209 If that does not help, execute these commands from Start/Run dialog as administrator: regsvr32 %Windir%\system32\wbem\wbemprox.dll regsvr32 %Windir%\system32\wbem\wbemcore.dll regsvr32 %Windir%\system32\wbem\wbemsvc.dll regsvr32 %Windir%\system32\wbem\fastprox.dll Try 2: Register WMI Components ================================= 1. Click start ->All Programs ->Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and click Run as an administrator. 2. Type the following command in the prompt window and press Enter after every line. winmgmt /clearadap winmgmt /kill winmgmt /unregserver winmgmt /regserver winmgmt /resyncperf Try 3: Import WMI Registry Keys ================================= Step 1: Back up Registry -------------------------------------- 1. Click Start, type "regedit" (without quotation marks) in the Open line, and click OK. 2. In the Registry Editor, click File menu, and click Export. 3. In the Save In list, select the folder where you want to save the backup. 4. In the File Name box, type a name for your backup file, such as "Options" or "Backup". 5. Click Save. Step 2: Create and Run the Registry File --------------------------------------- 1. Click Start, type "notepad C:\register.reg" (without quotation marks) in the Open box, and then click OK. Choose Yes when you are prompted to create a new file. 2. Copy the following texts between the star marks and then paste them into the opened Notepad window: ***************BEGIN*************** <Copy code from here down>>>>>> Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services \Winmgmt] "DisplayName"="Windows Management Instrumentation" "ImagePath"=hex (2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,\ 74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,\ 00,76,00,63,00,68,00,6f,00,73,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,2d,00,\ 6b,00,20,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,73,00,00,00 "Description"="Provides a common interface and object model to access management information about operating system, devices, applications and services. If this service is stopped, most Windows-based software will not function properly. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start." "ObjectName"="localSystem" "ErrorControl"=dword:00000000 "Start"=dword:00000002 "Type"=dword:00000020 "DependOnService"=hex (7):52,00,50,00,43,00,53,00,53,00,00,00,00,00 "ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001 "FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02, 00,00,00,14,00,00,\00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services \Winmgmt\Parameters] "ServiceDllUnloadOnStop"=dword:00000001 "ServiceDll"=hex (2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\ 00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33, 00,32,00,5c,00,\77,00,62,00,65,00,6d,00,5c,00,57,00,4d,00,49,00,73,00,76,00, 63,00,2e,00,64,\ 00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00 "ServiceMain"="ServiceMain" ****************END**************** After you paste the above commands, please close the Notepad window. Choose Yes when you are prompted to save the file. 3. Click Start, type "C:\register.reg" (without quotation marks) and press Enter to run the commands we have pasted. 4. When you receive a message box asking "Are you sure you want to add the information in the REG file to the registry", choose "Yes" 5. You will receive another message box indicating "Information in the REG file has been successfully entered into the registry"; please click "OK" to confirm. 6. Restart the computer. Try 4: System File Checker ============================= 1. If we have Windows Vista installation DVD disc, Please put it in the DVD/CD-ROM, if not, Please perform step 3 directly. 2. Click "Exit" if the auto-menu pops up. 3. Click start ->All Programs ->Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator. 4. Type "SFC /Scannow" (without quotation marks) in the "Open" box, and click "OK". Note: There is a space between "SFC" and "/Scannow". This command will take several minutes to complete and may require access to the Windows installation source files. Try 5: Next...... Go to Start/Run/CMD and type in: net stop winmgmt. Then delete the %windir&\system32\wbem\repository directory. Once done go back to Start/Run/CMD and type in: net start winmgmt If that doesn't help, try this: Open a Command Prompt and type "winmgmt /clearadap" to clear prior WMI/resyncperf information from the registry. Then type "winmgmt /resyncperf" to register the system performance libraries with WMI again.]]

Sorry for the formatting, I am copy and pasting from a document I compiled for this issue. Here are a few extra things to do to help fix this issue: 1. Go to Start, click run, type notepad.exe 2. Copy and paste the following: net stop winmgmt c: cd %systemroot%\system32\wbem rd /S /Q repository regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\scecli.dll regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\userenv.dll mofcomp cimwin32.mof mofcomp cimwin32.mfl mofcomp rsop.mof mofcomp rsop.mfl for /f %%s in ('dir /b /s *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %%s for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mof') do mofcomp %%s for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mfl') do mofcomp %%s echo DONE reboot pause 3. Choose file, then save as, and type the file name wmifixorsomething.bat and choose all files from the drop down menu. Save the file to your desired location. 4. Right click the file and run as administrator (or just double left click for XP) See if this fixed the issue. If not try the steps below. Make sure firewall is not blocking WMI. DCOM Security permissions and DCOM WMI Permissions 1. Go to Start , click Run , type dcomcnfg then click Ok (Or use Windows key+R) 2. Expand the Component Services tree 3. Expand the Computers tree 4. Right click My Computer tree and choose Properties 5. Click on COM Security tab 6. Under the Default Launch Permissions you need to make sure that the following users / groups have the Allow Launch permission: INTERACTIVE , SYSTEM and Administrators . Under the Default Access Permissions ensure only SELF and SYSTEM are listed and that Local Access is Allowed . 7. Now go back to the My Computer tree and expand DCOM Config 8. You may get a DCOM Configuration Warning . It is safe to ignore this warning and choose No 9. Find and right click Windows Management And Instrumentation object and select Properties 10. Under the General Tab make sure Authentication Level is set to Default 11. Click on the Security tab and make sure everything is set to Default. 12. Click ok until you are back to the desktop. 13. Click on Start , click on Run , Type in wmimgmt.msc 14. Right click WMI Control and choose Properties 15. If under the General tab it shows Successfully Connected To: <LocalComputer> then reboot the computer and check for the issue. 16. If you get errors under the General tab “Failed to Initialize ” or anything along those lines, then open command prompt and type in net localgroup "Administrators" "NT Authority\Service" /add 17. Reboot computer and see if everything is good. Hope this helps, Nathan Re

Sorry for the formatting, I am copy and pasting from a document I compiled for this issue. Here are a few extra things to do to help fix this issue: 1. Go to Start, click run, type notepad.exe 2. Copy and paste the following: net stop winmgmt c: cd %systemroot%\system32\wbem rd /S /Q repository regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\scecli.dll regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\userenv.dll mofcomp cimwin32.mof mofcomp cimwin32.mfl mofcomp rsop.mof mofcomp rsop.mfl for /f %%s in ('dir /b /s *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %%s for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mof') do mofcomp %%s for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mfl') do mofcomp %%s echo DONE reboot pause 3. Choose file, then save as, and type the file name wmifixorsomething.bat and choose all files from the drop down menu. Save the file your desired location. 4. Right click the file and run as administrator (or just double left click for XP) See if this fixed the issue. If not try the steps below. Make sure firewall is not blocking WMI. DCOM Security permissions and DCOM WMI Permissions 1. Go to Start , click Run , type dcomcnfg then click Ok (Or use Windows key+R) 2. Expand the Component Services tree 3. Expand the Computers tree 4. Right click My Computer tree and choose Properties 5. Click on COM Security tab 6. Under the Default Launch Permissions you need to make sure that the following users / groups have the Allow Launch permission: INTERACTIVE , SYSTEM and Administrators . Under the Default Access Permissions ensure only SELF and SYSTEM are listed and that Local Access is Allowed . 7. Now go back to the My Computer tree and expand DCOM Config 8. You may get a DCOM Configuration Warning . It is safe to ignore this warning and choose No 9. Find and right click Windows Management And Instrumentation object and select Properties 10. Under the General Tab make sure Authentication Level is set to Default 11. Click on the Security tab and make sure everything is set to Default. 12. Click ok until you are back to the desktop. 13. Click on Start , click on Run , Type in wmimgmt.msc 14. Right click WMI Control and choose Properties 15. If under the General tab it shows Successfully Connected To: <LocalComputer> then reboot the computer and check for the issue. 16. If you get errors under the General tab “Failed to Initialize ” or anything along those lines, then open command prompt and type in net localgroup "Administrators" "NT Authority\Service" /add 17. Reboot computer and see if everything is good. Hope this helps, Nathan Re